The present invention pertains to a vehicle sunshade and particularly one for selectable use in blocking parts or the entire windshield of the vehicle.
There exists a wide variety of vehicle sunshades which are adapted to cover the entire windshield of a vehicle such as when it is parked incident sunlight through the windshield is blocked, and the resultant interior heating of the vehicle is reduced. One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,363,513; 4,647,102; and 4,671,558. A variety of sliding visors which extend from the headliner of the vehicle are also well known. Such visors are represented by, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,419,749; 4,674,789; 4,492,404; 4,491,360; and 4,468,062.
The difficulty with the flexible cover type windshield covers is that they tend to be difficult to handle inasmuch as the flexible material tends to bunch up and become entangled if it is attempted to raise or lower the flexible material to and from a storage area. Thus, flexible material including pleated-type material typically requires additional unsightly storage areas such as relatively large housings to accommodate their bulk when stored. Solid-type visors, on the other hand, which are stored in the vehicle headliner, typically are single piece, far too small for full window coverage. Even if a large single piece panel could fit in a headliner, it would be ungainly to handle and due to the curvature of the windshield could not provide complete sun blocking protection. Naturally, there exists fiber board full windshield protectors which are common as promotional items, however, they are made to be stored in the rear seat or trunk of the vehicle when not in use and are only temporary devices.
Thus, there exists a need for a visor system which is a permanent installation as part of the vehicle which provides storage in the vehicle headliner so as to be unnoticeable and thereby promote and allow a clean and neat appearing interior of the vehicle and yet provide full window protection and preferably also function as a visor for partial windshield protection for blocking sun during driving as well as parking of the vehicle.